How to encourage reading at home

I am a massive reader, and was lucky to fall in love with reading from a young age – something that has stayed with me right up to this day. But it didn’t happen by accident, this was something my dad worked really hard to nurture in me from a young age. As I’m sure you will know, reading has many benefits and can have a huge impact on children’s lives, mentally, sociologically and educationally. That’s why it’s so important to encourage reading at home as it’s perhaps the greatest gift of all you can bestow on your children.

So how exactly can we get our children to love reading? Check out our handy tips  on how to encourage reading at home: 

Spend 10 minutes a day

Spending just 10 minutes a day, every day, reading together will show your children that you enjoy spending time with them and that reading matters to the whole family. Story time at bedtime is the perfect time to encourage reading at home and to snuggle down with a lovely book away from noise, television and mobile phones.

Make them a storyteller

Encourage your child to be the storyteller: let them read the book to you, get them to recount what is happening in a page or chapter. This helps your child think about what the story might be about and look for meaning when they read and it’s also a great way for them to feel your attention on them which in itself is a massive win which they will come to associate with reading. 

Make room for books in their room and around the house

To encourage reading at home, give your children books to enjoy, alongside their toys and games. Then they can look at a book whenever they feel like it, encouraging them to read for enjoyment.

Make space for reading

Set up a reading corner for them in their room with their own little bookshelf, or encourage them to build a reading den in the living room. 

Think beyond books

Reading doesn’t just to be about books. If your child feels the pages and chapters of a book overwhelming, why not subscribe to a comic or magazine.

We’ve recently been receiving The Phoenix Comic – a fantastic high quality weekly comic for boy and girls aged 7 – 14 years old which our daughter absolutely loves to read. It’s a great tool for encouraging a reluctant reader and reading at home because it’s packed with thrilling and action-packed adventure stories, activities like puzzles and how-to-draw guides, fun and colour which make them a lot more fun for children to read than your average book making it irrisistable to read. They are also sneakily educational owing to the fact that the jump-out-of-the-page stories cover history, science and more. It’s also just celebrated its 500th issue, and to mark this huge milestone, is sharing issue 500 with everyone for free on its website. Get four issues for only £1 here.

Visit the library regularly 

As a child, I spent every Saturday morning visiting the library and I absolutely loved it. To encourage reading at home, why not get into a similar habit with your child either at the weekends or one day after school. If they are still young, you can plan it around your library’s story time which the kids always love. 

Act it out

Encourage your child to act out what they are reading with actions, sound effects and funny voices. This all helps to bring the story to life (and will make you both laugh!). Embrace your inner child, and get involved too. After all, what have you got to lose? This always makes children giggle. You could also get them to use small world play to recreate what they have read using Lego or favourite small world play characters.

What do you do to encourage reading at home? Do leave a comment and share.

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